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What was your favorite way to play when you were little?
Remember?
You used to be a genius at creative play.
You’d spend hours in imagination-ville roller skating around the block, inventing speedways with your big wheel, and devising new ways to climb to the highest branch of the trees.
You wandered into the land of imaginary friends’ journies in the Narnia chronicles and the Bobsey Twins Series.
And you invented new ways of teaching even the silliest of stuffed animals, proving that even the most dull toy had meaning and value.
The point: YOU ARE A GENIUS when it comes to creativity, play, self exploration, and fascination with FUN!
So where did she go?
And how can you get her back?
No one’s kidding anyone.
Life is moving faster and faster and expectations and demands on our generation feel harder and more complex than our moms or their moms (or at least we think they are).
And all of it can feel like we can’t keep up, can’t breathe fast enough, work hard enough or master everything soon enough.
But the truth?
We don’t have to.
Life is not a pace outside of ourselves we can’t control.
Life is the experience we’re having with our thoughts and our relating our thoughts with otherso .
And what always helps me hone in the reigns a lotta bit is to not only center my thought journey but also my create my day to day being journey 🙂 (and they’re really one and the same but more on that later).
Lately I’ve been reminding myself that even though we grow up, being grown up does not mean we become stuffy and staccato, routine-ville and mundane with our doings.
Being mature and professional does not mean we forsake our yearning to play.
Nor does it mean we lose our ability to give ourselves permission to invest thought in that which feeds us and gives us joy.
We need to remember how to play.
And we need to mommy ourselves and insist upon it actually.
We need to give ourselves permission and reward ourselves for doing so.
So here’s the thing: not too long ago I started becoming my 8 year old more than once a year.
And I’m not talking my son or daughter. My present finds me without children in the traditional sense.
What I’m meaning is that when things felt heavy, hard, oooh even, dare I admit, scary, I’d start asking the 8 year old me what she thought about it, thanks to phenomenal writing coach and friend Shannon Jackson Arnold of theinspiredwriter.org
At one point, Shannon nudged me to create a schedule for myself that included honoring my writing practice every day.
I thought, “so done. I can totally do that.”
And I proceeded to email her back a schedule that looked like I was conquering a 2 year graduate study program in 10 weeks.
I remember her giggling as we talked about what I called my “awesome” schedule.
She gently nudged me “Hey Tre, have you checked in with your 8 yr old self and asked her to weigh in to this schedule? What does she think?”
Oh, did I burst out laughing.
My 8 year old self said “Ewwww! I don’t like that! Where’s the FUN??”
And more, my grown up self loathed it.
But something in me at that moment was deeply, deeply aware that sometimes in my attempt to be all things all the time to my work and clients I completely forget TO PLAY!
Duh!
No wonder my now was feeling really really hard and like I was hitting my head against a wall.
Oops.
So…I did something I’d never done before.
I let my 8 year old self create my schedule.
Hear me: way back when I was 8, she rallied the whole neighborhood to have a carnival at our house one summer. This is no kid who just gets by blowing bubbles and basking in the sun (though she still loves both).
I loved the outcome.
My 8 year old’s view was hecka more gentle, playful, practical and giddy.
She approached the day with wonder and delight not with heavy heartedness and ugh-villeness like “how am I gonna get it all done.”
In fact braving being my 8 year old self for a few hours gave me a biggie insight to me: that to the degree I use my childlike qualities, moments become simpler, freer, more fun.
And why shouldn’t they be?
So…that said…here’s a few ways I’ve started not only checking in with my 8 year old self whenever stuff feels ‘hard’ but more, here’s how I proactively allow myself space to be playful about my day every day. See if these ideas help you start owning your right to play, feel childlike more regularly, and lighten up the hard stuff:
1) Play: Think back: what did you enjoy doing as play when you were little? What is one thing you did that made you feel free, independent, creative, clever? I loved climbing trees and swimming. To this day I have a dream to build a treehouse and I try to make a practice of taking a dip, especially at night, in a pool or at a beach. And yes, I still adore skinny dipping! 😉
2) Go to a carnival: Think about a place you went when you were little that you really remember being blown away excited. What were you doing? where were you? Who were you with? What about it made you happy? Maybe you rode a ferris wheel, or had your face painted, or fed some animals. Whatever it was, think about it and either journal about it or get the why behind what it was that made you happy. And then go find that same thing if you can and do it. (face painting yourself doesnt count!) 🙂
3) Visit the children’s section of a library bookstore:Go to your local bookstore, find the children’s section, sit on the floor and dive in. No further directions needed.
The whole point to these suggestions:
The first one will nudge your creative independence.
The second one will get you mentally out of your world by physically going somewhere.
The third one’s simply because I’m a huge fan of local libraries and bookstores–especially the children’s sections 🙂 and more, I’m a huge fan of getting lost in the world of make believe.
These are simple, doable, practical.
And there’s no need to schedule them except this: be sure to do them this week. Pick one and do it. In fact I’d nudge you to pick one and do it today.
And then come back here and share! 😉
Have so much fun giving yourself permission to play!!!
(And if you like it so much you wanna incorporate being playful more regularly into your world, and you want some help with how to shift thoughts to give yourself permission to play regularly, gimme a call or email me or leave a comment and lemme know how to reach you).
Have fun!
